Was World War 2 the most traumatic war in the world?

Answer 1

2 horrofying bombs were laid during it that humanity have never seen before, over 61,000,000 deaths, while WW1 caused 22,477,500 including the KIA's,MIA's and WIA's, damage of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, and 31,850 industrial establishments in russia alone, yep, you can pretty much say that.

Well, yes, it was horribly traumatic, but I would actually rank it second, behind the Mongol Invasions of the 13th century in terms of actual measurable effects on the world.

The Mongols managed to conquer the entirety of Imperial China, Russia, and ancient Persia, and major portions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East, and posed a significant threat to Eastern Europe.

Wherever the Mongols went, they radically reshaped the current society and culture; in most cases, completely destroying it. A short list of the impact the Mongol Invasion have had:

• Destruction of the Muslim Caliphate, destroying Islam's primary core. The fragmented nature (and propensity to extremism) of Islam can be traced to this event, which is similar in traumatic effect to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Roman forces.
• Permanent poisoning of the Russian people to anything Chinese. Similarly, the xenophobic nature and love of strong autocratic rulers of the Russian national character is often ascribed to their country's treatment under the Mongols
• Crippling Russian national development, putting them about a full two centuries behind that of Europe, with which they were about even before the Mongols
• Speeding the development of the Nation-State in Europe. The threat posed by the Mongols was a significant impetus in pushing Europe towards the formation of large national states, and away from fluid kingdoms.
• In the fall of both the Persian empires and China, a very significant loss of accumulated knowledge, due to systematic extermination of the educated elites by the Mongols. In particular, the loss of knowledge due to the destruction of the Caliphate is a major factor in the decline of the Muslim nations in terms of world scientific accomplishment.

In terms of casualties, estimates range all over the board. But, by all accounts, the approximately hundred years of the Mongol Invasions caused at least 30 (and as many as 50) million deaths (half in China alone). This, at a time that world population was perhaps 20% of that in 1940. For some perspective: WW2's death toll was about 50-60 million out of 2.2 billion living, or 2.5%. The Mongol Invasion was 30-50 million out of 500 million living, or 8%. So, in other words, TRIPLE the relative death toll of WW2.